Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing technique for counting the passing number of moving objects from successive images.
Description of the Related Art
Techniques have been conventionally discussed for capturing images in shops and/or facilities by cameras, detecting moving objects from the captured images, and counting the number of the moving objects passing through predetermined areas. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 06-223157 discusses a technique for extracting trajectories of moving objects from images captured at different times and counting the number of the moving objects by regarding that the moving objects have passed through on condition that the extracted trajectories cross a detection line (a virtual gate) set on the image.
However, for example, when the moving object is a person, there is a variety of heights and movement paths of persons, and it is difficult to set the detection line so as to appropriately cross trajectories of persons as targets of counting of the number of persons. In other words, it is difficult to set an appropriate detection line from which a counting result can be obtained as a user intended.